Susanna Pollack is the President of Games for Change, the leading global advocate for the power of games and immersive media as drivers of social impact. In her role there, she produces the annual Games for Change Festival, the largest industry-facing gaming event in New York, dubbed by national media as “the Sundance of video games.” The event attracts industry leaders across game design, emerging technology, media, foundations, government agencies, academia and brands.
In 2017, Susanna launched XR for Change to focus on building a community of practice around how immersive technologies are offering radical new ways to improve lives.
Susanna works also closely with organizations that are actively pursuing digital games and immersive media to further their public or CSR mission. For clients, including American Express, Verizon, Princeton University, AT&T, United Nations, Carnegie Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Ad Council, and Smithsonian Museum, she has initiated dozens of programs to advance the games and immersive media for good sector.
As an Executive Producer, Susanna spearheads impact media projects, bringing together award-winning creators with mission oriented organizations. Current projects include 38 Minutes a partnership with renowned studios Archer’s Mark and Atlas V and Princeton University’s Science and Global Security Department, Oculus and MacArthur Foundation. The VR experience highlights the issue of nuclear security risk though immersive storytelling.
With a commitment to learning and education, Susanna also developed a portfolio of programs that advance the use of games and immersive media in learning. She launched the G4C Student Challenge with the NYC Department of Education in 2015 which now a national program that reaches 10,000 students annually. The program has attracted world class partners including the New York Times, NYC Mayors Office, ACLU, General Motors, Truth Initiative, National Geographic to offer a games design challenge to underserved middle and high school students across the country. For Verizon, she led the development of an XR Hackathon program that is currently being rolled out to 20 Verizon Innovation Schools over the next 2 years.
Prior to Games for Change Susanna worked across both the commercial and public sector. Over a 14 year period, Susanna held various senior level positions at BBC Worldwide Americas, including SVP of the US television distribution division where she led a team of 20 to raise $50m annually from coproduction and sales of BBC’s award winning documentaries and scripted content. She was also SVP of BBC Worldwide’s Children’s where she led the strategy of all youth related initiatives in the US including channel and IP development.
